Electronic documents such as web pages are often designed to be displayed on regular desktop computers with standard size displays. When such documents are displayed on other devices, e.g., handheld devices, mobile phones, television sets or gaming consoles, the size and layout of the display may not render the document in a manner that is convenient to the user. Various methods have been suggested in order to handle this. Such methods usually make modifications to the document before it is displayed in order to make the document fit the screen. This typically involves removing content or layout that does not suit the size or inherent properties of the screen. A common problem with such solutions is that the page may be rendered unusable or unrecognizable by the user, or the user may have difficulties navigating within the document.
Other approaches involve resizing or moving parts of the document, such as reducing image sizes, reducing the number of columns by changing the layout of the document, and changing colors, contrasts, brightness and font sizes.
An approach that has gained popularity lately is to initially display the document substantially as originally designed by the author, and provide methods for zooming in or out in order to display particular regions or elements on a page. Such methods are often intuitive and user friendly, but they are not without drawbacks, particularly when handling text. For instance, if a text block is very wide it may become necessary to scroll horizontally in order to read the text. In order to avoid this, it has been proposed to rewrap all text in narrow columns that will fit inside the screen of a device after zooming in. This, of course, changes the original lay out created by the page author, and may result in a document that is substantially longer in the vertical direction.
Consequently there is a need for methods that can overcome these drawbacks and result in a smoother and more user friendly way of displaying documents on small screen devices.